We Want to Know Wednesday Week 10

{1} Do you have any musical talents? I had piano lessons growing up. I was in a choir during 7th/8th grade and have also taken voice lessons so hopefully I've developed some musical talents.

{2} What role, if any, does music play in your life?
Music can be a good stress reliever for me. Singing or listening to music has definitely always been one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life.

{3} What is your current favorite song?
I think my favorite song changes on an hourly basis sometimes, but I've been listening to this song quite a bit lately...



{4} Do you sing in the shower? Yes.

{5} Has a song ever made you sad?
It took quite awhile for me to be able to listen to this song again after my mom died without it making me too sad or depressed...

We Want to Know Wednesday: Thanksgiving Edition

1. What three things will you be the most thankful for this Thanksgiving?
1. Religious Beliefs, 2. My family, 3. My best friends

2. What was your favorite Thanksgiving food as a kid?
I liked stuffing the most as a kid. I remember I'd constantly be asking my mom to make it again after Thanksgiving which probably drove her crazy.

3. What is your favorite type of Thanksgiving pie?
My favorite pie has always been, and probably always will be, pumpkin pie.

4. What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
Some of my favorite memories are of playing basketball in a gym at a church with my Dad and uncle Dahl during Thanksgiving. It was always fun to be able to get to know my cousins better because of that tradition as well.

In recent years I've looked forward to keeping score for Star Valley High School's Alumni Basketball Tournament. I will miss doing that this year and seeing some of my friends again.

5. Where is the farthest you've traveled for Thanksgiving?
The last few days I've been traveling over the river and through the cactus to Arizona for Thanksgiving. It'll fun for me to spend some time with my cousins especially and to be out of the cold weather in Wyoming for awhile.

We Want to Know Wednesday Week 8

{1} You have been asked to give a 10 minute speech to teenagers. What is it about?

My advice to any teenager possibly reading this would simply be to be yourself and to surround yourself with as many positive people as possible that care about you and respect who you are rather than compromise what you believe in to be someone’s friend or to be “popular.” If you focus on only having the most “popular” friends you can overlook some good people.

{2} Do you have a pet? Tell us about them. No pets? Why?

I personally don’t own any pets. However, my mom does have a family cat that is fun to play with or harass.

{3} What are the biggest inconveniences about the place you’re currently living?

There aren’t as many employment opportunities and I have very few friends here anymore to do things with consistently. Sometimes it can be frustrating that my parents are still aware of everything I’m doing.

{4} What do you think is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?

To allow myself some margin of error to make mistakes again. I think using a wheelchair has made me a perfectionist because it annoys me to think that I’m possibly not capable of doing something that someone else is anymore. I’ve always expected myself to do things at a very high level but I’ve had to learn to not be so critical of myself or dwell on my mistakes for too long when I have a bad day and my best isn’t nearly where I expect it to be at this point in my life.

{5} What are the THREE "nevers" of your life? (things you never thought you’d accomplish in your life that you actually accomplished)

1. A Bachelor’s degree from a university.

2. If someone would have told me when I was a teenager that I’d be talking to online friends from other countries I would have said they were crazy.

3. Boy Scout of the Year.

We Want to Know Wednesday #7

{1} What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Are you an eyes or a smile person? Maybe another body part?
Even when I didn't know my closest friends very well what I noticed about them is how their eyes would always light up after they’d help someone at school when they'd see that whoever they'd helped appreciated their kindness. I gained a lot of respect for them quickly because of that. It's very impressive to me how willing and eager each of them have been to do countless acts of kindness for me that I'll never be able to adequately thank them for. I couldn't ask for better best friends than I've been very fortunate to have in my life.

{2} If a movie was being made about you who would you like to see cast to play you? And would your movie be a comedy, drama, romantic-comedy, action film or a horror movie?

Russell Crowe is one of my favorite actors so I wouldn’t mind seeing him play me in a movie about my life. I think my movie would be all of the above. It seemed like a horror film or drama when I found I couldn’t walk anymore and my mom was going to die of cancer but I think my life is more of a comedy or romantic-comedy these days.

{3} Does your high school yearbook include a senior comment section? If so share what you said about your future goals. Have you met those goals? If you do not have a yearbook just share what your goals where when you were 18 and if you have met them. If you’re brave enough include your Senior Picture!

I’m sure my yearbook had some type of senior comment section, but I don’t remember saying anything specific about my future goals in any high school yearbook.

{4} When you walk into a room how do you present yourself? Do you walk in with confidence and command the attention of others or do you do your best to go unnoticed?

I do my best to go unnoticed. Blogging is out of my comfort zone because I generally enjoy flying under the radar and being more of a private person than drawing this much attention to whatever I’m doing. I don’t like being the center of attention most of the time. It has been nice to be recognized when I’ve accomplished something significant but I’m not so self absorbed that I need to constantly mention those accomplishments for more recognition from people than is necessary.

(5) A past or current celebrity crush?

Jennifer Connelly. I remember watching "The Rockeeter" as a teenager and thinking she looked very beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated in that movie.

We Want to Know Wednesday Week #6

1. What is the best advice someone has ever given you?

Growing up I’d always watch Teddy closely and try to figure out how to be as impressive as I perceived her to be. When I started high school I felt like I was completely irrelevant and didn’t think that I was nearly good enough for the older kids to ever care that I existed which bothered me quite a bit. Teddy indirectly gave me the advice to get back to just being myself and enjoying life instead of wasting time trying to somehow impress people like her by becoming something that I’m not.

2. What is your greatest accomplishment? I think my greatest accomplishment is to have the high caliber of friends that I do. It makes me very pleased and content to have the people in my life that I still do. I’ve always been very grateful that during the few times when life has knocked me down I’ve had at least one supportive friend that’s helped me to get back up, regroup, and keep trying.

3. Who do you admire?
I admire my mom. She was a very kind, selfless and generous person. It was amazing to me after she died how many people mentioned something that she’d done for them that I wasn’t even aware of because my mom never talked about it. Even when my mom was very sick from chemo she’d always be more focused on helping Sheila and I be successful than her own needs which was very impressive to me.

4. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

I'm too much of a perfectionist. I don't like making a lot of mistakes, but I need to realize sometimes that life is learning process and it's unrealistic to expect that I'll always be perfect.

5. How do you want to be remembered?

I’ve always had a goal to be more kind to people than they are to me. If it’s helped people to watch how I’ve tried to overcome whatever challenges I’ve had in life that’s fine. However, it would be much more meaningful to me if I was well-respected as a genuinely good person, by the people I care about most, rather than having my disability define who I am because hopefully there’s a lot more to me that people focus on than just that aspect of my life.